Suspects - The Story
(No Spoilers)
Dan Martinez aims for the strenuous but simple life of a triathlete in rugged Central Oregon, only to have his plans upended by a beautiful artist—and further thrown into chaos by the violent murder of the artist’s husband. The obvious suspects are Dan himself, the wife of the murdered man, and Dan’s own father. Dan must deflect the law from all three of them.
While he’d like to find Ken’s real murderer, Dan has none of the tools available to Deschutes County Sheriff’s Detective Carl Breuninger. Dan decides that the best defense he can create is a list of other people who might have wanted to kill Ken. In his investigations he learns about Ken’s fraudulent business practices, his bribery of public officials, his early life as a drug dealer, and his bitter relationship with his first wife. When Dan identifies a host of suspects to Detective Breuninger, the detective arrests Dan himself in the hope of learning what Dan is trying to hide.
Shortly before he died, Ken Winterpol took a strange interest in Amy De Santis, twenty-three and newly arrived in the city of Bend. At Ken’s funeral Amy learns that she might be related to Ken and might inherit much of his sizeable estate. Just starting her career, she says she doesn’t really care about the money. Amy and Dan and find they are both training for the same triathlon and begin training together, though Dan is wary of a girl who stands to gain so much from Ken’s death.
Dan’s uncovering of old secrets threatens a growing list of suspects and at least one of them attempts to kill Dan. When Dan finally, and almost accidentally, discovers the real killer, the two fight a battle to the death in a wild and remote setting.
Suspects is narrated in chapters by Dan, Candy Winterpol (the murdered man’s wife), Dan’s father Leon, Amy, Detective Breuninger, and, in a letter he left behind, Ken Winterpol - the murdered man himself. Along the way we meet friends of Dan’s who own a brewpub, a flamenco musician friend of Dan’s father, a wealthy but good natured young software engineer, and Amy’s newly-discovered biological family. We visit the Deschutes River, the Cascade Lakes, Portland, fireworks over the city of Bend, and the edge of the Eastern Oregon Desert
Table of Contents
Chapter 1 Running Into Trouble (DAN)
Chapter 2 The Color Red (CANDY)
Chapter 3 Playing Defense (DAN)
Chapter 4 Witness (LEON)
Chapter 5 The Sins of the Fathers (DAN)
Chapter 6 The Young Buck (DAN)
Chapter 7 The Undead Rise (CANDY)
Chapter 8 Injured Parties (DAN)
Chapter 9 Lake Oswego (DAN)
Chapter 10 To My Children (KEN)
Chapter 11 History Lessons (DAN)
Chapter 12 Coming into the Country (AMY)
Chapter 13 Threats and Celebrations (DAN)
Chapter 14 Biology and Fireworks (AMY)
Chapter 15 Heritage (DAN)
Chapter 16 Right and Wrong (LEON)
Chapter 17 Debt Collection (DAN)
Chapter 18 Identity (DAN)
Chapter 19 The Law Descends (DETECTIVE CARL BREUNINGER)
Chapter 20 Rough Trails (DAN)
Chapter 21 Explorations (DAN)
Chapter 22 Women (CANDY)
Chapter 23 Gains and Losses (AMY)
Chapter 24 Parentage (DAN)
Chapter 25 Shameless (AMY)
Chapter 26 The Prodigal Father (LEON)
Chapter 27 Benham Falls (DAN)
Chapter 28 The Color Black (CANDY)
Epilogue The Race (DAN)